Welcome to Litsy!

The Nest meets Sexy Rich Asians meets Dial A for Aunties.

#ArtfulAugust @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @Eggs
#QuirkyCharacters

May 8, 2020 Man. I am not sure when the last time I posted was; someone please remind me. All the days have just been blurring together haha Anyway, since the last post I have picked up Family Trust by Kathy Wang and hope to complete before the end of May, then while I was reading it, I ordered two more books off Amazon: Ever After by Sarah Pekkenan and You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkenan. Can you tell im obsessed !!!!!

Family Trust is touted as a mash up of The Nest and Crazy Rich Asians with Arrested Development on the side. I totally agree with The Nest comparison and Arrested Development. The characters can be very unlikeable at times but it makes them so human. I laughed out loud, cringed, and tried to verbally dissuade many of them from choices they were making 🤣it ended so well ❤️

My plans today include breakfast in bed, finishing this book and seeing the new Star Wars movie. This holiday season is all about setting attainable goals 💪🏻🤣

My slacker elves FINALLY decorated the tree. It‘s beginning to look like we can have Christmas after all 🤣

So glad this was better than I was expecting. Someone said it was a mix up of Crazy Rich Asians and someone Celeste Ng would write. Thank goodness it was closer to Celeste Ng! Entertaining and I will rate it 3.75. #20BooksBy2020

The sun is shining 🎉

Enjoying a cool breeze & some quiet time reading outside.

Reading during my volunteer shift at the community theater.

I liked this. I was drawn to the beautiful cover when I received the #ARC awhile ago, but it took me awhile to pick it up. If I read too many of a similar type book -- author, genre, era) then I get burnt out. It happened with Stephen King two decades ago & I'm only now interested again (even though I've always known he was awesome). ANYWAY - this happened to me with Asian books, so it took me a but to pick this up but I liked it.

Starting a new book by the pool.

As a Bay Area Taiwanese family gathers around the dying patriarch, the wife, the son, the daughter, and the ex-wife all have different attitudes as #anotheronebitesthedust.

There‘s just enough twists and turns to make the family dramadie an amusing diversion. I enjoyed the first wife Linda‘s character the most. Fred, the son, was a bit of a snooze until the the end, but I like how the characters wrapped up. #anglophileapril 3.5⭐️

Ugh. I just really don‘t like Fred as a character. I hate that two of the last five chapters are his. 👎🏻 #RantingOnASaturday

HOWEVER, the views out my windows are gorgeous! Dogwoods and azaleas are in bloom! #HappyPlace

Don‘t you hate it when you get to a long chapter about a boring character? Linda and Kate are way more interesting than Fred!

I‘ve been meaning to read this since last year. I wanted another family drama with minimal romantic drama after rereading The Nest. This dysfunctional relationship among a husband, ex-wife, wife, and two grown children is fitting the bill!

Anyone have suggestions of other family dramas with minimal romantic drama?? I want the book to be mainly about the family. Another one I liked was The Family Fang. Thanks!!!

Hi. My name is Colleen and it‘s been 2 days since I bought a book. I came so close to hitting 100 successful days of my self-imposed book-buying ban.

Sigh. It‘s not my fault, though - Kobo put a $5 credit in my account and all the HCC March Madness books were on sale.

This excerpt is split between two pages on the ebook, but it's about the Cupertino, California Whole Foods location. Anyone that has visited that location knows how accurate this description happens to be.

This book was heading towards DNF, as it is due to be returned to the library, and not enough time. Slow going. If you are Chinese (maybe all Asians), you'll understand when I say that this book is all about saving face. Part keeping up with the haves (it didn't really sound like there were have nots).

A couple days late posting my #TBRShelfie #LiteraryLuck

But here are the physical books remaining for my #MountTBR challenge. Believe it or not, I‘ve already made a dent.

Pick, with reservations. A fairly quick read that takes place in Silicon Valley. Fred and Kate are siblings, the adult children of Chinese immigrants. They both have excellent jobs and make very good money but want more. When their father is diagnosed with cancer, their perspectives shift a little, as both try to make their dreams happen. Too much rich people problems, but I like books set in San Jose (born and raised!).

This book reminded me a bit of The Nest. I liked this book but all the talk about finances and stocks bored me.
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5

Family Trust is a Silicon Valley story. It is also an Asian family story. It is also an American story. It‘s a story about the pursuit of success, about money, about family obligation. There will be Crazy Rich Asians comparisons but as someone not a fan of that, let me just say that Family Trust is better. Its characters are complex yet relatable, its observations of Silicon Valley life and family relationships are astute and witty. A great debut!

Enjoying a quiet cup of Yorkshire Gold on a rainy Sunday morning. The splatter of rain on the windows woke me up earlier. So it was off to have an early breakfast (kaya or coconut jam sandwich). How‘s your Sunday going?

Ok now I want shawarma from Dish n Dash. Luckily there‘s only just ten minutes from here. Although I prefer the lamb shawarma! Love that this book is set in the Bay Area.

This #bookbyafemaleauthor for #halfbloodbingo was an interesting look at the lies people tell about finance and how one family deals with their patriarch dying.

Breakfast this rainy and chilly Monday. Charsiubao and a siu mai - leftovers from weekend lunch.

DNF. I just couldn‘t do it. I hated everyone so much, that I just didn‘t care.

I‘m reading in bed this morning. I haven‘t looked outside yet. It‘s very dark. My phone says it‘s raining with heavy snow. Not sure how that works, but it sounds like I‘m in the right place.
#24B4Monday
@TheReadingMermaid @Andrew65

I had a really good feeling about this book. I had gotten the recommendation from list for top books in 2018. I finished it this morning, and I'm slightly disappointed 😔 it was very slow pace...I had hoped there would be some more family interaction. Every person had their own story going on, Linda, Mary, Fred, and Kate. The only thing that tied the book together was the father's cancer, which was a small portion. #catsoflitsy #handsomeboy

Post gym dinner and audiobook.

Hoping to finish this one tonight. 🤞🏼🤞🏼

Treadmill reading and book 2 of 2019! 3 stars, maybe 3.5 - mild pick! This reads like The Nest meets Crazy Rich Asians (the back also references this, as well as Arrested Development) - quirky, often funny family drama as the patriarch is dying and leaving behind an immense fortune, complete with some overseas settings.
#popsugarchallenge (about a family) #litsyatoz (W for Kathy Wang) #readingwomenchallenge (multigenerational family saga)

@LauraBeth & @Reviewsbylola : Rest assured that @BookishMarginalia had a book within 2 minutes of the “bookless” picture being taken and posted.

#MetaLitsy

A little taste to show why I‘m enjoying this book so much so far: here‘s one of the characters talking first about the virtues of having an adult child shut-in AND buying a doormat as a deterrent to thieves... priceless!

Last few hours in Puerto Rico before heading home to our cats in Bradenton, FL. Enjoying the book and the view!

Today‘s #bookhaul from #TheBookmarkPR! The bottom 4 are international paperback editions of recent hardcovers.

This a great quiet story about family, love, resentment, truth, lies...well, about life, the end of life, figuring out what really matters in all that, & sometimes missing that point completely. It is what I love in a story: simple & complicated all at once. If you like those type of stories, I definitely recommend giving this one a try.

It was a low-key Christmas this year. My big “gift” was getting insurance approval and receiving a DexcomG6 so that took precedence over books, for once. 😝 Either way- I‘m super excited about my mini #bookhaul and can‘t wait to read all three!

I received an ARC via Goodreads, but just got around to reading it.

This has been compared to The Nest, which I hadn't yet read when I requested this ARC. I enjoyed #FamilyTrust more than The Nest. The Family Trust characters aren't *quite* as greedy and shallow, I think. It's a strange contest to "win"!

Regardless, Family Trust was a fine read. I neither hated nor loved it. If you enjoy observing rich people behaving badly, you may enjoy it.

#25in5 begins now! I desperately need this to help me get motivated to read and off of Reddit (I need to break my social media addiction, for real, guys). Starting off with the tagged book so I can get it back to the library, then moving on to THE DINNER LIST, IN COLD BLOOD for murder book club with my mom, and I‘ll be using THE PERFECT MOTHER for audio! What‘s on your TBR?

Though some may not be a fan of the characters, I loved the writing style of the author and how the characters progressed through until the end.

Between a pick and so-so, this novel of money and family is a decent entry in the “rich people‘s problems” genre. Full review at http://booknaround.blogspot.com/2018/11/review-family-trust-by-kathy-wang.html

Sitting in the doctors office and I just finished this book, which was entertaining btw. But, of course I didn‘t bring another book...I should know better 😆

Pretty solid read. Saw this was compared to The Nest and Crazy Rich Asians. It was not as good as those books but still a good story.

Starting a long drive this morning with my family for a wedding. Hopefully this will help pass the time.

A carefully drawn out family drama about a well off Chinese/American family, the father of which has just been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and we get to see how this will affect everyone.
It was a very engrossing and juicy family drama. Well written and told from multiple POV. I also found the characters not very likeable but pretty interesting , great character development proving this authors talent.

I need to clean my house, grocery shop, and visit my mother-in-law, but instead am stuck on the couch icing an injured foot. At least I have a book and my snuggly Doggie next to me; as you can see, it‘s finally sweater season for him here.

I am kind of meh on the book. Started out well, but I am having issues really caring where it goes.

A quick reading and coffee break at work. AT WORK! Yaaaaaay! So excited to be working again after such a long time off. 😄